Tell us about your career journey.

I graduated from Michigan State University where I ultimately majored in communications and minored in Spanish. For my first three years of undergrad, I had been a human biology major before I decided to switch to communications. In order to catch up, I spent my senior year doing co-ops to get work experience in digital marketing and communications.

My first co-op internship was doing digital marketing and analytics at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs where I learned the basics in how to build a social media strategy. The second co-op internship I took was doing communication and public relations measurement analytics at Southwest Airlines where I learned how to measure the sentiment of marketing and communication campaigns. Shortly after those internships and graduation, I was recruited to work at Louis Vuitton on their social correspondence team. I built communication templates for global client outreach and social media teams for exclusive product marketing launches.

After almost two years at Louis Vuitton, I decided to enroll in the IMC program because I wanted to expand my network, skills and knowledge of brand marketing communications. I also wanted more exposure as to how the best brands are changing the ways we engage with them through messaging, campaigns and storytelling.

What skills did you gain at Medill or what experiences did you have that were particularly beneficial?

One of the courses I have found most valuable was the Product and Business Innovation Studio. This course gave me exposure to working cross-collaboratively with all types of people. It helped me gain an understanding of how you can take a design-thinking approach to solve problems. I also gained a better understanding of human-centered design, which has been a complete game changer for me. I learned how to cross collaborate with students from different functions like engineering, design and business that mirror experiences in tech.

Another important course was Content Strategy, which taught me the fundamentals of how to create a comprehensive brand strategy, as well as the importance of brand guidelines, voice and tone to guide how you want to engage with customers. These skills really helped me in my summer internship at Airbnb doing content strategy and have continued to serve me well in my role at Pinterest.

What did you do during your Immersion Quarter and what did you gain from that experience?

During my Immersion Quarter, I was a product content strategy intern for the Experiences Guest team at Airbnb. I produced six UX writing projects that were integrated into the platform, and I was a lead content writer for a project that was the first of its kind featured on the homepage of Airbnb mobile/web. Working on the product side of Airbnb's platform, I learned how to collaborate with designers and pair content with design principles. I also grew a deep understanding of how and why brand voice and tone are so important.

My internship at Airbnb was magical. I had the opportunity to be in the room with some of the most talented folks I've ever met while gaining experience in the tech space. I was also able to network with other interns from Twitter, Google and Adobe.